How to Make Potato Pancakes

It's worth learning how to make potato pancakes, as they're the perfect accompaniment to any meal--breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Potato pancakes, also known as latkes (popular during Hanukkah), are typically made with peeled and grated russet potatoes. The starchy pancakes are bound with egg and flour, flavored with grated onion and, after they're pan-fried, garnished with sour cream or applesauce.
It's important the potatoes aren't grated too far ahead of cooking time, as they'll start to turn brown when exposed to the air. Have the other ingredients prepped and ready so once the potatoes are grated, the pancakes can quickly be formed.
Another trick to making perfect potato pancakes is to make sure the oil is hot, but not too hot. If the oil is too cold, the pancakes will be greasy because they'll absorb too much of the oil. If the oil is too hot, the potato pancakes will cook too quickly on the outside and stay raw on the inside. Test the oil temperature with a bit of the potato mixture; you want small bubbles to form around the pancake, and the oil should never hit a smoking point.

-Hi everyone, I'm Judith. Well today, we're making Classic Potato
Pancakes. Fantastic for breakfast, lunch, or snack. So, what you'll
need is 2 1/2 pound of roasted potatoes, peeled, cut
in quarters lengthwise and reserved in cold water; 2-1/2 teaspoon
of kosher salt and more to taste; about 3/4 cup
of corn oil; 1 medium yellow onion, diced; 1 large
egg; 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour; 1 teaspoon of
baking powder; and 1/8 of teaspoon of freshly ground black
pepper and sour cream and apple sauce are optional for
serving. Alright, so let me explain what we did to
our potatoes. So, they were reserved in water and what
we did is we put them in our food processor
and we grated them and they get nice and finely
grated. Then, we transfer them into a colander and sprinkled
about 1/2 teaspoon of our salt on top of that.
So, we let that drain and cool for about 10
minutes. So, now, we have our potatoes all crushed and
grated, looking just as we like them right here. Alright,
onto the next part, so, we have our food processor
here. What we gonna do is add 1 tablespoon of
our oil into here [unk]. We're gonna add our flour,
baking powder, onions, and alright, all of that goes in
there. Let's put our salt as well in there. Pepper
goes in there too, fantastic, alright. So, let's get all
potatoes and working in batches. What we're gonna do is
gonna take out any excess liquid from the potatoes, so
just kind of squeeze them in your hands like that,
don't want it to be too runny. What we've got
is just you're gonna put it in the food processor.
So, I'm gonna squeeze out the excess liquid of the
remainder of our potato mixture and pop it all in
the food process. So, now, all of our potato mixture
is in the food processor with the rest of our
ingredients. So, we're gonna pulse that about 10 seconds. Alright
and just with the spatula, if there's any on the
sides just get them down, and we're gonna pulse for
another 10 to 15 seconds. So, now that all our
potato mixture is processed, we can transfer that into a
large bowl. Be careful of your grater there. Alright and
we'll set that aside and prepare our skillet. So, we've
added our remaining oil into a large 10 inch skillet
right here. Let oil get nice and hot until there's
simmer on top of the oil. So, with our potato
mixture, we're gonna get a large soup spoon and very
carefully, we're gonna in 4 dollops into our mix and
what we wanna do I just that flatten it to
about 3-1/2 inches and with for the back spoon of
the like so. So, we don't wanna overcrowd our skillet,
but let's get a good 4 dollops should be good,
and it should be doing that bubbling around your pancake.
Now, this will cook fairly quickly probably about 3 to
4 minutes. Now, we're lined our plates with some paper
towels ready to get rid of our excess grease, very
good, alright, so we let them cook away 3 to
4 minutes. Alright, so they've been cooking for a couple
of minutes on 1 side. What we're gonna do with
metal spatula, we're gonna give them quick turnover exactly how
we want them. Nice and golden brown very carefully and
we're gonna let it fry on that side for another
couple of minutes until they are golden brown. So, it's
been cooking away on the other side for about a
couple of minutes. So, we're just gonna transfer them onto
our paper tower lined plate. Let that excess grease get
soaked in there, and we're gonna do exactly the same
thing with our remaining potato mixture. So, we fried up
all our potato pancakes. They are beautiful golden brown color
now, and if you want just at the end, you
can sprinkle a little bit of rock salt or sea
salt on top of there, and that is gonna be
perfect. Alright, so there you go. That's how you make
classic potato pancake.

Step By Step

1

Heat the oven to 250 degrees F.

2

Set a colander in the sink. Grate the potatoes in a food processor fitted with a medium (4 millimeter) grating disc. Transfer them to the colander and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of the salt. Toss and let drain for 10 minutes, tossing occasionally.

3

Meanwhile, replace the processor's grating disc with the chopping blade. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and the onion, egg, flour, baking powder, pepper, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt to the food processor bowl.

4

In batches, squeeze the liquid from the shredded potatoes with your hands. Put the potatoes in the food processor with the other ingredients and process for 10 seconds. Stop the machine, scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, and process until the mixture is finely chopped, 10 to 15 seconds more. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

5

Have ready a large plate lined with paper towels. In a 10-inch skillet, heat 1/8 inch of the remaining oil over medium heat until the surface of the oil shimmers very slightly. With a soupspoon, carefully ladle four mounds of the potato mixture into the oil and spread them slightly with the back of the spoon until they are about 3-1/2 inches in diameter. (The oil should be bubbling gently around the pancakes.) Cook until the pancakes are a deep golden color, 2 to 3 minutes. Lift the pancakes with a slotted metal spatula and carefully turn them over. Continue to cook until the second side is a deep golden color, about 2 minutes more. Using the spatula, transfer the pancakes to the paper-towel-lined plate and blot well with more paper towels. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Use the spatula to transfer the pancakes to a baking sheet; keep them warm in the oven while you finish the rest. Continue to add oil between batches as needed to maintain the 1/8-inch level of the oil. Serve with the sour cream and applesauce on the side, if using.

Make Ahead:

1

If you're preparing several batches for a crowd, fry the pancakes, let them cool, and freeze them on baking sheets. Once they're frozen, transfer them to freezer bags. You can reheat the pancakes on rimmed baking sheets in a 350 degrees F oven for 10 to 15 minutes.